Sex offender bylaw draws opposition

by Melissa McKeon mmckeon@holdenlandmark. com

Former SORB chairman Timothy App. HOLDEN - For one of the safest towns in the country, there was a great deal of discussion about crime Monday night, as Holden's select board opened a public hearing and more than two hours of discussion on a proposed sex offender residency bylaw. That law would limit registered sex offender residency to areas more than 2,000 feet from parks and recreation areas, day care centers, schools, senior facilities and places of worship. It would also prohibit registered sex offenders from loitering near those places.

Police Chief George Sherrill was the first to speak, at the invitation of the select board, and pointed to the town's low crime rate that made it one of the 100 safest places in the nation. three investigations a year for his department, Sherrill said.

But that isn't why Sherrill spoke against the bylaw. In states that have adopted such bylaws, he said, they've found the regulations don't work. Moreover, they create a false sense of security for people and have even worse repercussions, Sherrill said.

"Probably most important," he said, "this will force offenders underground."

As the law stands, those who register are tracked by local police departments, which must take registry information when sex offenders are classified and have to register where they live, work and go to school. The yearly visits of Holden's dozen Level II sex offenders, its one Level III sex offender and its unnumbered Level I sex offenders (whose information is not available to the public) add administrative duties for the town's police officers, who must input the information into the sex offender registry and keep it up to date.

Police Lt. Don Ball said those tasks consume about 15 percent of his time.

Trying to implement and enforce a residency bylaw that would have police officers judging loitering distances, serving citations, appearing in court and keeping track of nuances of the law would be an administrative nightmare, Sherrill and Ball said.

Of the 14 attendees who stepped to the podium, all but one agreed with Sherrill that the law wouldn't achieve its end of making people safer.

Paxton Road resident Lori Altobelli, who said she was once the victim of assault, lauded the efficacy of Holden police officers keeping an eye on offenders and spoke to public frustration with levels of punishment.

Deane Avenue resident Cynthia Bazinet called the law "misguided and potentially dangerous."

Bazinet pointed to the experience of other states that have outlawed such buffer zones because they don't work, and, as Sherrill said, they drive offenders underground so that they don't register.

"Post-release, virtually half of Iowa's sex offender population fell off the map," she said.

Karen King of Brunelle Drive suggested the board "work with state legislators to develop more stringent controls" on sex offenders, a sentiment Maureen Floryan of Sterling Road echoed.

Floryan also recommended better education and warned the town about the legal challenges.

Albert Ferron of Appletree Lane was concerned about the areas of town where sex offenders would be allowed to live.

"We're restricting these people to a very small area," he said. "I'd hate to be living in that area."

Only select board candidate Allan Paul Moreau spoke in favor of the bylaw.

"This bylaw will add a new tool to protect our children," Moreau said.

Three attendees with experience and credentials to speak as experts on the subject were allowed their two minutes at the podium - but only two minutes.

A motion by Selectman Joseph Sullivan to allow the speakers more time provoked an argument among board members and was defeated 3 to 2, with only Sullivan and O'Brien supporting it.

Retired Shirley prison superintendent Paul Verdini of Chapel Street said the bylaw would have "no impact on re-offense rates."

Verdini said the current system mandates controls that keep sex offenders in the system, something that would be negatively impacted by such a bylaw that would make them move or keep them from moving into certain areas.

"By moving them around, we'd fracture this whole system," he said.

He was also concerned the bylaws would pit towns against each other.

A former member of the state's sex offender registry board, Timothy App, also spoke against the bylaw.

"You're proposing a bylaw tonight that compromises our ability to manage this population," he said.

App also admitted the state hadn't been tough enough on sex offenders.

Anna Maria College faculty member Patricia Gavin cautioned against the definitions used. Sex offender is a legal term, and sex offenders are not necessarily pedophiles or sexually dangerous, she said. Gavin said less than 5 percent re-offend, and that the bylaw intended to protect children can actually harm them when the sex offender is a member of their family who can't come home.

Many speakers who urged parents, the select board and the public to educate themselves pointed to the value of educating children to protect themselves. School committee chair Margaret Watson of Doyle Road, speaking as a private citizen, had even clearer evidence that such education works.

When a stranger offered her 12-year-old daughter a ride, the child kept in mind the instructions given to her by an officer at Mountview, and refused the ride, keeping away from the car. She was later able to identify the man when he was involved in a subsequent crime.

Investing in that type of education, Watson said, would be money better spent.

Attorney William Smith of Main Street pointed out a certain irony to the bylaw. One of the statutory issues used to judge whether a person is going to re-offend - something used to decide their level - is their stability as evidenced by their ties to their community. Those with stable ties are less likely to re-offend. The bylaw would sunder those ties in some cases, he said.

Christopher Lucchesi of Bailey Road admitted the issue is "gut wrenching," but suggested care in making any judgment and examining the facts. He urged the town to leave the issue at the state level to avoid the legal risks.

No decision on warrant article

More than two hours of discussion and testimony yielded no vote from the Holden select board on whether their own version of the bylaw would be placed on the warrant for the town meeting.

A place has been reserved for the bylaw should the board decide to support it. But with or without the board's support, a similar version of the bylaw will be on the warrant because a citizens' petition was submitted with the wording of the bylaw as it exists in West Boylston, without the loitering prohibition.

A map of areas of town that would be off limits if the bylaw passed was displayed during the meeting, but there was something missing that bothered Selectman Joseph Sullivan.

"The one area I'm concerned about is school bus stops," Sullivan said. Those areas cover all parts of town, and would not be covered under the bylaw's residency requirement, he said.

Selectman Kimberly Ferguson said she'd also done research that suggested that such provisions didn't pass with state lawmakers because bus stops can easily be changed.

A provision of the bylaw that would outlaw loitering in those areas, a portion added before Selectman James Jumonville submitted the bylaw for consideration by the select board, is problematic and would likely face challenges, according to Town Manager Brian Bullock.

Without the loitering prohibition, nothing would prevent sexual predators from out of town - or within the town's permitted residency areas - from attending events at the town pool, or at athletic events, Sullivan said. But keeping the provision would also put the bylaw in jeopardy as being considered unreasonably restrictive, he noted.

Add the areas of town that are open space to the approximately 41 percent of the town that surrounds the areas described in the bylaw and Bullock suggested the prohibited areas would probably approach over 70 percent of the town.

Add bus stops, and that number would rise. "To do what you're suggesting," Select Board Chair David White said to Sullivan, "would make the town so exclusionary, that it wouldn't pass."

"If it doesn't pass legal muster, maybe it shouldn't," Sullivan said.

The West Boylston law passed with the state's attorney general's office because no provision was found that would contradict any other state law, Holden Town Counsel Stephen Madaus said. That blessing by the state attorney general's office doesn't mean the law would be immune to challenges.

Selectman Kenneth O'Brien was concerned about the legal ramifications of enforcement and any potential challenge to the law that would cost police officer time, town counsel time, and town employee time to nail down the details of the law, inform folks who buy property, find out which properties are covered, and enforce the provisions.

O'Brien questioned the mechanics of implementation, something Bullock said hadn't been finalized.

Ferguson suggested the board digest the large amount of information submitted at the meeting for awhile before voting, but cautioned against a phrase that cropped up in many warnings against the bylaw.

"As a parent, it's a little bit disturbing to me [to suggest] that I would have a false sense of security because of this bylaw," she said.

"I just have to caution people that no one at this table is saying that this law is the answer."

White said the bylaw is a tool for parents. It would also tell sex offenders that Holden doesn't view the locations listed in the bylaw as "acceptable locations for people to live who violate other people," White said.

"I believe that if it prevents that one person from buying a house next to Dawson School, it's worth it," White said.

Sherrill and Sullivan warned that the bylaw's blanket restrictions could have the unintended consequence of netting a youth whose crime may have been one committed by many teenagers: consensual sexual activity with another teenager who happens to be younger. Those teens could then be cut off from their families and the supports that might mean a successful - and crime free - future.